KARACHI: Pakistan Muslim League-Functional (PML-F) MPA Nusrat Seher Abbasi told the Sindh Assembly on Monday that she and other MPAs had received threatening text messages over the resolution they had moved in the assembly on Friday against the graffiti et al seen in Karachi calling for a Mohajir province.
Abbasi, who spoke on a point of order, said the text message warned MPAs to understand their fate if they ever passed a similar resolution. She said she would not back down despite the threats.
Abbasi and several legislators from the PML-F, Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and National Peoples Party had moved the resolution on Friday, which was passed unanimously.
On Friday, PPP Sindh Culture Minister Sassui Palijo and PPP MPA Humera Alwani had noted that the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) did not sign the resolution.
Sindh Home Minister Manzoor Wassan responded to Abbasi and said that the MPAs had given him the numbers the messages were being sent from and he would look into it.
In the assembly, Wassan made a rather vague claim that he knew who had sent the messages.
PPP ministers Pir Mazharul Haq and Ayaz Soomro reiterated the party’s resolve to never let the province be divided.
The MQM's parliamentary leader and minister Sardar Ahmed denied reports that the party had not backed the resolution.
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This demand for Muhajir province is solely sponsored by MQM.. because they want to have atleast one Chief Minister and they cannot achieve that because of PPP popularity in rural Sindh. My grandparents also migrated from India they were Muhajirs not me I am born and brought up in Sindh therefore I am a Sindhi even if I don't speak the language. Please free us from the clutches of MQM..
@Bilal and likes Factories, buildings and roads are built by poor people. They could be Pathans, Urdu-speaking, Punjabi, Baluch, Bengali and (now) by Sindhi etc. MQM, essentially, does not represent poor people. What it has contributed towards education, health and job creation for poor Urdu-speaking people? Flyovers, signal free roads and few hospitals are good, yet do not guarantee universal health, education and dignity. Just check what was the percentage of children getting good public sector education in 1988 and what it is now? How many poor women still line up in government hospitals in the shadow of humiliation just to get few spurious drugs?
On the other hand, democracy, participation in decision making and power sharing are among the fundamental rights of the people. Nobody should and nobody could take away this right for long. In Karachi, people have the right to choose their representatives: good or bad. Nevertheless, people with sound intellectual mind must advocate what is right in context and perspective of poor people, Sindh and country and oppose what is wrong.
the people who came over from india built up karachi to what it is now.the muhajirs built the factories,industry and businesses.the muhajir people deserve a province of their own.when the ppp and mqm can lobby for new provinces in punjab and KPK ,then why don’t they work for making new provinces in sindh also? the urdu, speaking people of sindh deserve a new province of their own.im also from punjab but its their basic necessity which they strugle for new province
@Sachal Sarmast As you said that MQM has strong hold in Karachi, so wouldn't that be good idea to give MQM at least power in Karachi? currently Karachi is being run via non-local administrators, Urdu speaking people don't really want to divide the Sindh all they need is some sense of ownership, and if we do local body election in Karachi, I am pretty sure that the demand for province will fade away.
MQM is a political party with a very strong voting base in Karachi; no doubt , it has the power to hold whole of Karachi as hostage and it has a potential to destroy Karachi by simply creating law and order situation. But what about peaceful development of Karachi? MQM alone cannot guarantee it. Without other stakeholders, there could not be any peace. And if there is no peace then no jobs, no education, health facilities and no Karachi worth living particularly for poor Urdu- speaking Sindhis. Where would end the politics of Balkanization, hatred, division and further division?. India was transformed by colonial masters so was struggle of independence unjustified? No history, no culture, no rights and no human relationship, just only turf politics? Divide Sindh and then divide Karachi in many small fragments; and then seal its borders with Baluchistan and rest of Sindh, and all issues of poverty, jobs, education, health, peace and tranquility would automatically be solved. Whose agenda is this? Surely, it does not suit to poor Urdu speaking particulary who is not fanatic and who is not supporter of MQM.
@Mehran, some facts for you, No Urdu speaking chief minister has been appointed in Sindh, if you truly believe in equal rights and opportunity then why there is such discrimination?
And why there is no quota system in Punjab, where a student from Lahore get equal chances to the student of DG KHAN.
why do any body think that they can snatch piece of land from native sindhis and make a different province. every right has been given to urdu speaking people which sindhis have. and bye the way sindhis have never interfered in other provinces business. if ppp is asking for a province in punjab of nwfp that is because the ppp members from that province are asking.
The imp question is do the two largest parties of Sindh MQM and PPP want to divide it or not? Some of the arguments that I see here are the same as Israeli settlers make in Palestine, much to the opposition of local natives.
Cheap tricks by the PPP to corner a certain vote bank. We need to partition southern Punjab asap for the sake of a healthy federation...that should take priority but since when do these people do anything in the interests of the country?
@Salman Orangiwala:
Yes, these are important questions to understand.Let us start with point by point. 1. Quota system exists in different parts of world (India, etc) to encourage people from down trodden areas to bring them to main stream. Tharparkar is backward area, they cant compete with Karachi based student, they need window to come forward and excel. We are ready to end quota system, replace all Tharis with karachiites and you people go and live in Thar. Problem solved. Secondly brother, why r u so jealous in helping a brother who belong to poor area? History tells us that once you were also penniless but urban areas of Sindh provided you bright future.
2.Secondly who has stopped Karachiites to go to Police Deptt. MQM has got Home Ministers for long time during Msuhraf era? even today they are part of Sindh Govt? If you dont join Police deppt, It's not our fault?
Dont add fuel to fire, instead work on bridging gap between Sindhi and Mohajirs. If you believe, you are also sons of soil, prove it and dont play in the hands of others to black mail the very people and land who gave you every thing. Grow up!
The problem is that sindhis are very slow to accept muhajirs as Sindhis. Bhutto started Urban and rural quota system within Sindh for ten years giving rural areas 60% of the govt jobs and urban areas 40% of the jobs.Even after fourty years this quota system continues. The matter of fact is That inspite of being most educated ethnic group Muhajirs are having less than five percent representation in govt jobs both in federal and sindh government. While any one from anywhere in Pakistan opr even non Pakistanis can make domocile from urban areas of Sindh you can't make a domocile from rural area even if you have lived more than 20 or thirty years in rural sindh. Unless sindhi statrs accepting urdu speaking as true sindhis this problems will exist.
@Hameedullah
Brother the urdu/arabic word "Mohajir" means immigrant or one who has left their place of origin and come to another land. Hence the first muslim mohajirs were the Prophet (saw) and Sahaba Karam who migrated to Madinah from Makkah. After that there have been subsequent Arab muslim Mohajirs with Bin Qasim who came to Sindh. The afghan muslim mohajirs who came to India and joined the mughal armies, etc, the muslim mohajirs from india to pakistan in 1947, the afghan mohajirs to pakistan in the 1990s. So the point is that in Karachi almost everyone has come from somewhere and hence 99% of people living in Karachi are mohajirs who have come from sindh interior, KPK, balochistan, Punjab, etc. Finally the word Mohajir is a great and honourable word. Because our beloved Prophet (saw) was a Mohajir, all the respected Sahaba Karaam were Mohajirs and Alhamdulillah, my ancestors were mohajirs by migrating in 1947 and I despite being born in Pakistan like to call myself a Mohajir because its an honour to be one and makes me one step closer to our beloved Prophet (saw).
Rather than divide Karachi from Sindh as a seperate province, it makes better sense to make it a federal territory and govern it from Islamabad because of Karachi's size and importance relative to other cities. Hyderabad can then become capital of Sindh.
Mohajir soba is conspiracy to create divide between Native Sindhis and Urdu speaking Sindhis so that Punjabi Establishment can avoid Siraiki Soba in Punjab. The policy of our establishment is to "Divide and Conquer". Urdu Speaking people should not be fooled negative designs of hidden hands. Their fate belongs to Sindh, so instead of fueling hate and divide, they should accept Sindh as their motherland and respect her territorial integrity and live as brothers not masters.
Lets accept the truth that Pakistan is a tribalistic society. You are recognised as a sindhi, punjabi, mohajir, pushtoon, seraiki, kashmiri, hazara, baloch, etc. So its ideal to have provinces for each and every tribe. It gives every tribe an identity and a province. The argument that since Mohajirs migrated from india and do not have 'ownership' of Karachi's land is an old argument. 65 years is enough time to be recognised as an aborigin of a country and a city. So Karachi and Hyderabad should be made a mohajir province based on the fact that Urdu Speaking Mohajirs are in a majority there and have been living for 65 years. Moreover 99% of Karachiites are mohajirs whether they are sindhi mohajirs who have come from interior sindh, or pushtoon mohajirs from KPK or punjabi mohajirs from Punjab or Urdu Speaking Mohajirs who have no other place except for Karachi and Hyderabad and hence should be given an identity and province in Pakistan, at least after 65 years...
no Actual Sindhi has ever asked the Division of Punjab or Division of KP. only some have said that The states (which existed before 1947) such as multan, bahawalpur, kalaat can be restored if the people demand but no Sindhi has ever given the slogan of Siraiki province. Karachi is Sindh . division of Sindh can never be good for the people of Sindh, If the division happens then what will happen to the Mahajirs of interior ?
For us Sindh is mother land if the division took place innocent people will die of both sides which is not good for Sindh or of whole pakistan. Urdu speaking are part of Sindh and Sindh belongs to them as much as it belongs to Any Sindhi speaking.
@zeeshan mengal: First of all punjabi language and culture is still alive. People of all languages listen to Punjabi songs & still dance to the tunes the way we dance. Second punjabi is the second most spoken language of UK, we have kept our culture and language alive even on foreign land. The problem in Sindh is that Sindhi's tend to make others feel alien on their land, and what great has Sindh done by remembering your mother tongue and sindhi ajrak? Sindh is soon going to become even more under-developed than KPK in the next 5-years.
Provinces should only be delineated according to administrative basis and not not not on ethnic basis. No Mohajir sooba, no Saraiki sooba, no Hazara sooba.
The case of Punjab and KP is different in the sense that Bahwalpur was never historically part of Punjab,After the fall of One Unit, Bahwalpur was annexed to Punjab and Siraiki area always belonged to Siraikis and It was during Ranjeet Sing time that it was made part of Punjab. Similar is the case with Hazara Division and Deera Ismail Khan in KP. However Sindh has not annexed any one's land, rather in the name of religion and patriotism, a massive number of refuges thursted upon us. Who neither own land, nor our language, nor culture, nor ready to integrate. Our land provided them shelter, food, job and better life in most developed urban areas of Sindh, so that Muslim brothers can live with us side by side. But instead of being thankful and living with us as brothers, they want to blackmail us by airing Mohajir soba. Such tactics would only add fuel to fire and Sindhi-Mohajir divide will increase, which is never good omen for our country.
What a non-sense i am looking in all these comments. These people are making us fool in the names of patan, muhajir, sindhi, balochi and we are becoming fools. we are all considered as Pakistanis outside Pakistan. No one knows sindhi, patan or muhajir. These terms are used by those crazy politicians to get votes from the people.
@zeeshan mengal: And look how great Sindh, KPK and Baluchistan is. They have the best education, clean water, highest employment, no corruption, no criminals, no pollution... oh wait.
The day Karachi becomes a "Suba", We will be rolling up our "Bistra"
initial demand is for province, next will be the separate country.
Come onn end this drama of division and disintergartion. This has been decided long ago that there will be new provinces/states in times to come as per the wishes of international power giants (obviously the west). Mr President struck the deal with MQM for sharing the power on insistence of American Ambassador Anne Patterson right after the general elections in 2008. MQM is going to perform as agents for the Americans for controlling Karachi and its port. In case Balochistan is seperated from Pakistan then there will be trouble and the port will be inaccessable to nato. In future, Americans will only have Karachi, as a launching pad to keep an eye on Pakistan, Afghanistan and China. And we idiots are still arguing over the point that there should be or should'nt be another province in Sindh. What we all should be arguing over is the point that after Sindh or other provinces are disintegrated what is going to happen then....Who will get the revenue share, how much the rural Sindh will benefit out of Thar Coal reserves (If it is included in Sindh after seperating from Karachi) and other resources like imposition and earning out of taxes? should be the points of main concerns....LOOK BEYON PEOPLE...These politicians are playing in fixed match cant you see........? If at all you want to settle this for good then simply hold a referendum and ask people what they want........!
@samad malik: I totally agree with you. Punjabis should be proud of their culture and language instead of hating. Look what this so called sacrfice for other provinces has done. If they would have loved their language their motherland, they would have accepted other peoples rights on their culture, mothertongue and motherland.
@samad malik:
The amount of self loathing and shame that punjabi people have in them for their language is saddening.No one should feel embarassed of who they are.They should make efforts to promote their culture and language,those who try to kill off who they are or where they came from ,can't have a bright future.
Urdu speaking people are feeling deprived because they don’t have control over police and administration of Karachi, so I would say Local bodies election in Karachi is the answer of all this unrest so that Karachities will feel that they are part of this system in some way.
Both PM and MQM exposed!
@Antebellum:
Those who abandon their mother tongue,those who feel ashamed of who they are can never succeed in building a prosperous country.No one else is going to start forgetting their language or culture,nor should they. By killing their own language and culture,punjabis have not done pakistan any favour,they've just made a major language extinct.
To make karachi a province, there is need to develop rest of sindh as equal to karachi. There is not a single city in rest of sindh half developed as karachi and hyderabad. Karachi has all the headquarters,government offices,infrastructure,industries,universities. Secondly karachi's population is mix of urdu speakers, pathans, baloch, sindhis, punjabis, will mohajirs throw them out of city and,what about those people who are intermingled in mohajir families and those mohajir families who are intermingled with indigenious people. People please think before you sow the seed of hatred among yourselves.
@samad malik
We the people of Punjab have sacrificed our language and ethnic identity for Pakistan. Pakistan is more dear to us than merely a Province. Pakistan is our MOTHER! And it is high time that other ethnicities of this beloved country start doing the same.
they just wanna make an issue, nobody has threatened them, if yes then provide evidence to police
Now the shoe is on the other foot. Mr PM any comments??
Put a stop to GRAFFITI... Karachi looks like a dump with them! Help beautify Karachi!!!
Why double standard by MQM, they represent urban sindh, why they feel shame for the cause of Mohajir Sooba, if they are fighting for seraiki & hazara provinces, then why not a province for their own people ? why they give sindh the status of a sacred cow ? we want another province in urban sindh YES WE WANT
Whats the need of division?? focus on the real issue of public
@wasim, if you look closely, and for once remove the bias against other ethnicities, you will notice that this particular move is promoting a separate province for Karachi. Karachi is well developed, as compared to rest of Sindh, plus Karachi pushes the blood into the other rural parts of Sindh. If Karachi is made into a separate province, will Lahore be willing to share its economy with rural Sindh?
Yes Karachiites did want a separate province, but that is history. Now when MQM has the power to satisfy the demands of Karachi, and yes we did see development in last 10 years, there is no reason for a Muhajir Suba.
But ofcourse, just cuz it is about MQM, we do have to raise voices. Bloody Immigrants!
@wasim:
people of punjab don't consider punjab as their mother,we don't even speak our mother tongue anymore because we are so ashamed of our identity,our culture and our language.This self hating that is present in the majority of punjabis is the reason why we have no popular punjabi newspaper,not much punjabi literature being currently written,nor is punjabi taught in punjab's schools as sindhi is taught in sindh's schools.
@wasim
The objection is because the demand is to create a separate province for those people who are the descendants of people who migrated from what is now India to Pakistan in 1947. The claim in Punjab and KPK is based on ethnic groups that have been settled in a particular area since before 1947. Would it be correct to demand Punjab be separated and separate province for people who migrated in 1947 and settled in Lahore be created there?
Ground reality is that Sindh is already divided may be not in maps. We have to come out of stone age and divide all provinces to four a piece to get rid of this debate. Equal treatment in all provinces will calm down situation in the whole country. Its all about bullying of majority.
All the numbers ended with 90 !
What is the problem if Muhajir Province is created withing Pakistan? In India we have created so many new provinces. There is competition among provinces to develop. Provinces compete with each other to attract industries and investment.
I need a Peace Province :(
So called Sindh Ke Bete! Motherland is equal to Mother, and they are going to divide it?
So, now another drama has started. There is never a dull moment in our beloved Pakistan. The Chinese have an adage, "May you live in interesting times." Salams to Pakistan
not a muhajir but why these people in sindh are so angry when it comes to create provinces in NWFP and punjab but bash people if they talk about creating provinces in sindh.
if punjab, NWFP can be divided in to multiple provinces, then so can be sindh.
the logic of poor develpment in western punjab doesn't apply as sindh is more backward compared to punjab or NWFP.
if they consider Sindh as mother of their, then people in punjab and NWFP also have the right to consider NWFP & Punjab as their mother.
If punjab and KPK can be divided then why not sindh? why this special treatment for sindh only that the rest of the provinces are to be divided but not sindh,why this discrimination against the other provinces?
the people who came over from india built up karachi to what it is now.the muhajirs built the factories,industry and businesses.the muhajir people deserve a province of their own.when the ppp and mqm can lobby for new provinces in punjab and KPK ,then why don't they work for making new provinces in sindh also? the urdu,memoni,gujrati speaking people of sindh deserve a new province of their own.
If the ppp is demanding new provinces in punjab and KPK,then why not new provinces in sindh also? when will this hypocrisy be stopped? if saraiki and hazara sooba yes,then muhajir sooba yes also.